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She hadn't expected the house to be dark when she arrived at Margaret's. Surely, Maggie must be at home, otherwise the door wouldn't have been open. She felt for the light switch, but couldn't find it. As she made her way through the corridor, she called out her friend's name, and found that it got stuck in her throat. Suddenly, she stepped on something that broke under her feet. The sound made her jump.

"This is silly," she muttered. "Lumos!"

Looking down, she saw that what she had stepped on was a candy cane.

And then she saw the blood.

Last edited by Russia Snow; 12-10-2011 at 09:39 PM.

This completely gorgeous banner, which makes me happier than a squirrel, was made by Hokey

He’d tried to shine, damn, he really had. He’d never really shone, not next to his wife, or his brother, or any other of the Death Eaters. His mother had always told him that he might not be the biggest star, but if you looked to the side, you would see Rodolphus Lestrange shining brightest.

This wasn’t even the thing that a Death Eater should care about. They all wanted to be Voldemort’s favorite, but none of them really were. The ones that stood out were people like Snape and Bellatrix. Exceptional.

“Sit by the fire and let your Gran tell you a story. Once upon a time a star in the sky wanted to be better than all the other stars. So it burned and burned, shining so brightly, until it outshone all the other stars, and those on Earth thought it was the only star in the sky.

“Then it exploded. All that was left was dust, drifting lonely through space. All the other stars, content to blaze at normal pace, remained. Do you understand, Bella?”

Bella said, in hushed excitement, with her eyes fixed on the burning logs, “Yes.”

Name: Cyns/CheshlinHouse:SlytherinTitle: A Muggle WonderA/N: Tonks would be 11 or 12 in this scene

Nymphadora Tonks looked at the scene under her Muggle grandmother’s Christmas tree. There was a baby lying in hay. A woman kneeled behind him with a man standing beside her. Three men in robes held golden gifts, and a shepherd and lamb was nearby.

The story of a baby sent to save mankind seemed strange to her, but the kings reminded her of wizards. A star above the barn kept trying to light, but the electric bulb flickered on and off.

When her grandparents weren’t looking, she pulled her wand out. The star would shine bright and clear forever afterwards.

He liked Harry, he really did. Harry was brave and kind but modest about it – he wasn’t the type of bloke to talk about what he had done until people grew tired of hearing it. Neville thought he might never grow tired of hearing the stories.

Neville’s grandmum loved Harry. And Neville knew Harry’s life was difficult but sometimes he wished he could be a Gryffindor hero, too. His relatives would mumble sometimes that maybe the Hat had been wrong about him and sometimes Neville thought so too.

But one day, he hoped, it would be his moment to shine.

Thank you to Hokey for the beautiful banner. And thank you to everyone who nominated and judged --I'm so grateful to you <3.

It didn’t matter what he did, because his older brothers had all done it first. Prefect? That was done three times already. Headboy? Done twice. Quidditch Captain? Done by Charlie who was so good he could have played professionally. 12 OWLS? Done. Everything he did, his brothers could do better. The awkward youngest son, constantly being compared to the others. There was nothing new he could do. He couldn’t even be the rebel of the family, the twins had done that already. He was doomed to live in the shadows cast by the bright lights of his five older brothers.

Name: KararooHouse: GryffindorTitle: You Charmed That Heart Right Out Of Me

When she had left Hogwarts, everyone had told her that it was a stupid idea, that she'd never make it, and that she'd be back with her great-aunt in no time, wishing she had stuck around for her NEWTs. They weren't entirely right. She hadn't made it (yet), but she was not going to go back to living with her relatives, even if that meant cleaning this dump of a bar for the rest of her life. She sighed and put another chair up. One month till Christmas. She started humming.

Suddenly, someone entered. "Celestina?" he asked. "Is that you?"

This completely gorgeous banner, which makes me happier than a squirrel, was made by Hokey

Name: tobeornottobeagryffindorHouse: RavenclawTitle: Shooting StarRating/Warnings: 1st/2nd Years—None Author’s Notes: This is super lame, and I did a ridiculous amount of research to write it. >.>

“Where’s your star, Padfoot?” James asked.

“Can’t see it,” Sirius said shortly. “It’s on the far horizon and only visible close to dawn.”

“Oh.”

Silently musing, Sirius offered, “You know, I think my family knew I’d be like I am. Look.” Pointing toward Leo, he said, “Regulus is up for all to see, and—” gesturing toward the opposite horizon, he added, “and there’s Orion, bold as ever.”

The sympathy Sirius expected never came. Instead, James said, “Doesn’t that just mean that you don’t have to prove yourself? I think you outshine them all.”